Bones

Aude Best Place to Live in France The best place to live in France is Aude, in the region of Languedoc-Roussillon, according to a recent survey of quality of life factors carried out by French weekly magazine L’Express. The Tarn and Vendée tie in second place, with the Pyrénées-Orientales in fourth place, and Herault, Aveyron and the Gers (Gascony) all share fifth place. The selection was made using seven factors, with points awarded to each factor to determine a ‘quality of life’ league table. The seven factors were: i. Proximity to the coastii. Proximity to mountainsiii. The cost of housingiv. Average temperaturev. Days of rainvi. Level of crimevii. Cultural life---------------------------------------- Just read that somewhere. I was talking with a neighbour today, he's a 'local' but has travelled the world and lived in Paris etc. He agrees with the idea that folk around here can be a bit closed - cold even - when compared to folk from other regions, as does every other non local I speak to. (I should point out that he instigated the conversation after a trip to Carcassonne; he mentioned that people were very warm when they recognised each other in the street, but not to other passers by). Having said all that, I'm from Manchester originally and whilst people are generally friendly they also like to steal your car and - you know - stab you and stuff! And surely a Londoner would find the Aude a breath of friendly fresh air? [:)]

Frenchie: having just hoovered the stairs and living room I'm fighting hard not to swear right now![:@]

The view of the Pyreneese mountains in winter months makes it all worthwhile. I don't find people here any more or less racist than back in England, though in our village even the northern French can be referred to as foreigners. I don't pay that kind of attitude any mind. [:D]

Took our 9 year old to see the doctor over xmas. The doctor informed us of his diagnosis: flu, our lad jumped in with "Bird flu?!". You had to be there I suppose... [:D]

You sound like my missus Frenchie. [8-)]

Isn't an exhaust manifold a collecteur d'échappement?

Yes! More Harley photos please. Can't promise any decent weather for you Pads but I'll certainly keep my paws crossed. [:P]

[IMG]http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h92/bonesey123/IMGP0450.jpg[/IMG] Double; triple.... Have at it! Weather has been spot on for the most part. It was cold leading up to Christmas but seems to have calmed down; could've probably got away with a jacket this afternoon. Hardly sweltering but sunny at least. Xmas has been garbage, our lad has flu so we've been stuck in. Hoping he recovers by tomorrow night! Is Blighty freezing cold? Come on, give me some good news.

Behold - perfection... [IMG]http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h92/bonesey123/IMGP0414.jpg[/IMG]

You see kids; it starts off with flogging a few old dvd's and before you know it you're a pirate! Personally I still see an opening: caseloads of used dvd's and english books. Like you have the English shop in Carcassonne - you could have the English media shop, all above board!

I believe you Quillan. [;-)]

Yeah - like I'm that fat!

I thought that all of the peeing about involved in registering a Japanese car in France - even after passing the sva test in the UK - was prohibitively expensive and time consuming? There are a few lhd cars that come out of Japan by the way.

Doh! I've got to reapply for my passport too... Just a quick point re the differences between a paper license and the newer paper/photo license: I think I'm right in saying that those (like me) who have the new style photo license aren't automatically eligible to drive a certain weight/seating category. I remember having an eleven seater land rover and being told that with my photo license I wasn't strictly eligible.

From what I've read it's a softening of the law, they cut you off instead of sending you to court, no? Peerguardian 2 doesn't quite do what it says on the tin, or so I've read. The ports for p2p being restricted/blocked are the ports you choose not to download via! The last Bond movie was 'leaked' onto the file sharing sites and did better box office business than any previous Bond movie. Pirate videos existed before the dawn of the internet and there's very little difference these days; it's still a camera in a cinema or a copy of a screener innit? As for sharing existing dvd's: where's the beef? Firstly, they overprice cd's and dvd's and that should be illegal, and anyone familiar with the current wga strike should know that the greedy studio bosses are filling their own fat wallets and cutting out the talent as much as poss. Finally, I watch loads of 'new' movies and if the file sharing community fell apart tomorrow I'd watch very few because I don't have the dosh to buy loads of dvds. I recommend some of these films and perhaps some of those people I recommend the films to go out and buy them, they should be paying me not cutting me off! We all swap hard copies of dvd's we've bought, where's the difference?

I know there's certain BBC serices (radio) that you can't get overseas, and I'm pretty sure that it isn't done out of spite... (I think I meant to type 'services' there, although serices is a nice enough word).

[quote user="woolybanana"]Many years ago I worked birefly at a school for newly arrived immigrants in Brimingham. The number of kids claiming to be under 15 was amazing when it was clear to all that they were not. But they too also had "papers" to "prove" their age.[/quote] Those lousy proof providing papers, eh?! This is why I'm all for unbridled immigration. Here we have a group of kids whose parents are pushing them to learn, whilst so many of our kids take education for granted and prefer happy slapping their way through adolescence. A truly heart warming anecdote, must have been a highly rewarding teaching experience for you.

And for the record, girls from African countries can be twelve and yet look 18. Its the equatorial climate you see; they mature at a very young age with many being married off and having babies before they are 15. It's the same with indigenous Australian females. What experience does your husband have to know that a young girl is not 14?. ------------------------------------------------------------- That's very interesting. You state that your comments are "for the record", perhaps you'd like to provide a source because I'm sure there will be many here who might suspect that you are presenting opinion as fact. I'm pretty sure that any girl/boy can look older/younger than she/he actually is, regardless of their ethnicity or "climate" and I'm sceptical as to whether there exists any reliable studies of geographical anomalies. Are there biological changes following childbirth that grossly affect an adolescent's physical appearance or are we talking general demeanour here; if so could you detail the salient features? Are these effects confined to "indigenous Australian females" and "girls from African countries" or are they apparent also in young girls from other continents/ethnic backgrounds?

Very, very interesting. This is gold SD: Gold I say!! Finally, my + 30 status is working to my advantage - bring on the rule change. [:D]

My sisters were due to come over on the Eurostar and then grab a connecting train down to Toulouse: strike put paid to that! [:(]

If the vehicle is over 25 years old (30 years from January 2008) then you can obtain an attestation from the Federation Francaise des Véhicules d'Epoque, which is essentially a type approval waiver for classic cars. ------------------------ Hi SD. I was bothering you about this U.S. import issue not so very long ago (well, if you don't ask...!). A quick follow up question if I may: by using this particular registration route - which sounds extremely groovy by the way - do you imagine/know whether you would end up with a carte grise 'collection'? I need to go back and take a look at some older posts, but I'm sure I read that there are rules for cars registered as classics in France whereby you can only drive them within some sort of predefined radius?

At the risk of appearing facetious Sweet: Road sense! [:D] I drive pretty, er, swiftly on the open road but always keep at least two car lengths distance between me and the driver in front: until I overtake them. [:)]. The big worry for me is the amount of lunatics that overtake on blind corners - I mean they can kill themselves for all I care but I hate the idea that they could take out my family with them. [:@] I do wonder if I'm ever so slightly more switched on when driving in France and perhaps that's a good thing? On the other hand, I returned to England last year and was all over the place: I had eyes like dinner plates!

Does anybody else have this strange feeling that they can't predict what the other (French) driver is thinking or meaning to do?  In fact, does any know what the hell I'm talking about? (as I am not sure I am being very clear in my explanation) ? --------------------- Road sense! The one thing they cannot teach you at driving school. I think I do pretty well in France now.

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Bones"]One more tip (one that I'm sure you have already considered). If the police pull you over for anything, pretend you can only speak enough English to say "Friend - lend - car - I no understand". They'll soon get bored. [/quote] That did worked for my French friend when he was stopped for driving  tad too fast arriving in Brighton after picking me up from the Newhaven ferry... The French registration on the car made it more plausible though! [:D] [/quote] Tee hee! My uncle did it after moving to Germany in the 80's: he knew that the chances of an English copper being fluent in German was next to zero.

Yeah, they just don't work! My rage emerged after sitting behind a young man who was speaking into a mobile phone during the rush hour - obviously not in an a hurry himself!